‘If it’s of national interest, build it to national standards’

Residents and leaders along the Mackenzie Valley Highway’s route say they need basic services in place to capitalize on the road’s economic opportunities and weather its negative impacts.

Cabin Radio travelled to Wrigley and Fort Simpson to ask people about the 800-km highway, which is close to being fast-tracked and recently received $405 million from the federal government to move the project forward. It’ll take an existing road that runs through Fort Simpson to Wrigley, then extend it through the NWT’s Sahtu region up to Inuvik.

“We’re risking a lot. We’re putting a lot on the table, allowing a highway through our territory, and it’s going to change our community forever,” said Wrigley-based Pehdzéh Kı̨ First Nation Chief Jamie Moses.

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Moses feels apprehension but also excitement. The road may bring more economic opportunity to Wrigley but it will bring more and cheaper drugs, he said. 

Jay Horesay, a PKFN councillor, is also concerned the highway could lead to an influx of heavy drugs, but he is ultimately in favour of the project, saying “like everything else, it’s a double-edged sword.”

To address some concerns, Horesay said the First Nation is training guardians to observe and report on the new highway.

Moses is focused on how to use the economic opportunities to help deal with the negative impacts. He says he is trying to prepare the community for how the project and increased traffic will change their way of life. 

The First Nation says it has asked the GNWT to ensure basic services like a full-time nurse and RCMP are in place in Wrigley before highway construction gets under way.

Nurses and RCMP are in town for a day or so every month or two, according to Moses, but the First Nation would like visits at least once per month for a week at a time, plus visits from a mental health professional.

“They’re asking a lot of us and they’re not putting really anything up yet,” Moses said. 

PKFN is advocating for work camps to be drug and alcohol free, located outside the community and include security, Horesay added.

There is a correlation between work camps and resource extraction and violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people, according to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. 

“Industries that create ‘boom town’ and ‘man camp’ environments are implicated in increased rates of drug and alcohol-related offences, sexual offences, domestic violence, and gang violence, as well as sex industry activities in the host communities,” the inquiry’s final report warned.

The NWT Bureau of Statistics’ 2025 estimate has Wrigley’s population at 135. There is no grocery store in the community.

Services like health, education, policing and infrastructure are all lacking in Wrigley, Moses emphasized. If Pehdzéh Kı̨ First Nation can generate its own revenue from the highway project, it will have control over how that money is spent and which services are funded and prioritized, he said.

In Wrigley and Fort Simpson, many people said there’s been talk of this highway for their whole lives. They’ll believe it’s happening when construction starts.

Horesay and Moses, on the other hand, felt confident about the project when they spoke to Cabin Radio in late August.

“This is the first time that the federal government is actually making a commitment and pushing it and driving it,” Moses said, adding the military’s involvement and interest in the region is a contributing factor. 

“Now it feels more realistic than ever,” Moses said. 

About a week after that conversation, the federal government announced it is investing $405 million to help advance the highway project’s environmental assessment, engineering and design studies, and some construction work.

While that may be great news for the highway’s proponents, Moses emphasized the project still needs to receive PKFN’s free, prior and informed consent.

‘When will they get started?’

Horesay said the vice-president of the federal Major Projects Office previously met with the First Nation in Yellowknife and said “she’s gonna personally make sure it doesn’t fail like other major projects.”

Some residents in Fort Simpson weren’t as confident. 

Wally Antoine told Cabin Radio the proposed highway will create jobs and make it quicker to travel between towns. Then he laughed and said it’ll probably be another 20 years before it gets done. 

“There’s lots of talks now, but everybody’s skeptical,” Luther Simpson said outside the Northern Store in Fort Simpson. It would help the community with jobs, but he wanted to know: “When would they get started?”

The GNWT’s proposed project timeline says construction will take three to four years and be completed in 2032, though that relies on a speedy conclusion to regulatory processes and funding being secured.

Like Antoine and many residents, Simpson said replacing the ferry and ice road system with bridges would have positive impacts on northern communities. The latest Mackenzie Valley Highway proposal includes new bridges connecting Fort Simpson and Wrigley, the NWT government confirmed on September 2. A portion of the federal government’s $405-million investment will go toward engineering and design studies for these two bridges.

“People in the community, sometimes they have to wait two months for the ice bridge to go in and the transition is pretty rough and the grocery situation … prices start to soar and it’s hard for some people to get by,” Simpson said. 

Another Fort Simpson resident, Peter Erasmus, said if the highway isn’t going to make the cost of living any cheaper for northerners, there’s no sense in building it. 

The Liard River bridge is “very important” because during spring break-up and fall freeze-up you’re stuck and the only option is to take a $430 helicopter ride, Fort Simpson resident Wilbert Antoine said. 

“Who’s got that kind of cash? I’m retired. I’m an Elder. I’m on fixed income,” he said. The existing highways should be chipsealed before a highway is built up past Wrigley, he emphasized.

As Jamie Moses put it: “If you want to declare it of national interest, build the highway to national standards.”

Maintaining a way of life

In Wrigley, Elder Tim Lennie said though the Mackenzie Valley Highway is being talked about increasingly in the context of defence and Canadian sovereignty, in the long run it’s actually about access to resources.

The Mackenzie Mountains contain deposits of critical minerals, which is why everybody is descending on the region, Lennie believes.

“This little small community will be a hub to the Mackenzie Mountains for a long time,” Lennie said, pointing to the region’s fresh water and air, mountains and beauty.

“Once the resources are out of here, what do our people have?” Lennie asked. “We need to maintain our way of life here in Wrigley as Indigenous people … for future generations to come.”

Lennie is focused on what the highway means for younger generations and is worried the community is not prepared for what is coming.

“What do these young people need? What do they require to take advantage of that?” Lennie asked. Maybe some young people want to get into business and need training to do so, he mused. 

Almost everyone Cabin Radio interviewed, regardless of their position on the project, agreed the highway would bring significant change to their community. 

“You wouldn’t have enough money in your bank account for me to give up this peace here today,” Lennie said.

Former PKFN chief Lloyd Moses said the federal government needs to make good on promises around healthcare and education if it’s going to push major infrastructure projects in the region.

“They need something from our territory,” he said. “Well, we need something back in return.”

In Wrigley, at least five PKFN members, including the former chief, told Cabin Radio the present chief and council have not talked to the membership enough about the Mackenzie Valley Highway. Lisa Moses said it would be “so wrong” for the project to move forward without appropriate consultation with band members. 

Earlier this year, a petition sought to remove PKFN’s current chief and council, claiming members do not have confidence in their leadership skills and knowledge. 

Rose Moses – one of the people behind the petition – said the community needs to resolve the conflict over PKFN’s governance before major projects like the Mackenzie Valley Highway take place.

The lack of local consultation is holding things up, Lloyd Moses said.

“We’re not all on board,” he said. “I think there might be repercussions from not being all together.”

A public meeting took place on September 1 and 2, shortly after Cabin Radio spoke with residents, Chief Jamie Moses said. According to him, 20 to 25 community members came.

PKFN uses public meetings, social media and newsletters delivered to residents’ mailboxes to communicate about the Mackenzie Valley Highway project and offer community updates, the chief said.

Lennie said, in his view, a lot of the conflict within the community comes down to a lack of resources and capacity to engage with the territorial government and community members.

The GNWT and PKFN have a contribution agreement that covers the cost of holding meetings about the Mackenzie Valley Highway, which includes door prizes and remuneration to encourage people to attend, Jamie Moses said.

“It’s very, very important that we have member participation,” he said. He encouraged people to attend meetings and use the opportunity to ask questions to government officials and ensure their concerns are heard. Moses added these meetings are recorded so residents’ views are documented, and said getting community perspectives on the public record is especially important when regulator the Mackenzie Valley Review Board comes around.

He said two of the biggest concerns community members raised at the September 1 and 2 meetings were a need for better policing and nursing services and a requirement that long-term work contracts be negotiated with PKFN’s development corporation.

On the business side, one of the things PKFN will start doing to build local capacity is community heavy equipment training on the winter bypass road, Horesay said. 

He wants the town to look at adding amenities like a store with a gas station for people who will eventually travel on the Mackenzie Valley Highway.

Owning a ‘meaningful part’

In Fort Simpson, Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation Chief Kele Antoine called the highway project a “generational” opportunity but said the big question is: “How do we make sure that opportunity translates into long-term prosperity for our people and for other neighbouring nations and the North as a whole?”

Many people and leaders along the route have that same question.

“We don’t want to simply watch the next chapter of northern development happen,” Antoine said. “We want to help write it, and we want to own a meaningful part of what we build.”

To make this happen, Antoine says the First Nation needs to start preparing immediately and building the businesses, workforce, infrastructure and partnerships that will allow LKFN to capture those opportunities rather than watch them pass through its territory. 

“We’re just trying to navigate that as quickly, but as carefully as we can,” he said.

He said that preparation is necessary not just for the Mackenzie Valley Highway project but also other economic development – such as mining and defence projects – that will likely follow.

“We want our children to look back at this moment, this project, and say that this wasn’t just when they built the highway, this was when Indigenous nations in the North began building real economic ownership,” Antoine said. 

“The Mackenzie Valley Highway could create prosperity for generations, but only if we are intentional about what we build around it.”

Claire McFarlane contributed reporting.